They do.

“W-What…?” Their eyes go wide. “Do you hear yourself?” Olivia asks.

“Yeah. This has been a weird day.” You admit scratching your head. “I just want to stand by my words. I’m not mad at you, and if that’s how this is going to be, then I might as well be on good terms with you three. Like I said, I’d rather be making friends than enemies.”

The girls look at each other, and again, Jessica is the first one to answer. “I want to go. If you’re willing to give us an opportunity, I’m willing to take it.” She says with a shy smile. Man, to think you’d see that expression on this girl’s face one day.

“Alright, I’m up for it to, I guess…” Olivia says before clearing the throat. You’d like to believe her cheeks are getting a little red. “We better hurry. There’s only 20 minutes left.”

Lilian doesn’t exactly agree, but it seems that since her two friends are going, so is she.

When you get to the cafeteria and sit down on a table, you realize just how bad this idea was. You find Emily and Megan, sitting and talking to Katherine while you were away. When they see you with the school’s devils, of course they’re speechless. With a sneaky, pleading look, you ask if it’s okay if they sit down with you.

Your girlfriends obviously don’t like the idea, and Katherine looks like all she wants is to run away. You can’t blame her, so you shoot her a silent, reassuring look, hoping she understand that you’re trying to mend relationships, not make them worse.

However, the heavy, awkward silence is felt not only at your table, but in the whole cafeteria. Everyone, and you mean EVERYONE is looking towards you. People speak in whispers, no one dares walk close. The seven of you silently and intently focus on your food. To make matters worse, yours went cold. Your girlfriends glance at you from time to time with expressions that ask “at which point did you go completely insane?”, Katherine sinks in her chair as much as she can without outright disappearing, Olivia and Lilian look annoyed but say nothing, and of course, Jessica seems completely unfazed, yet she still remains quiet, eating and glancing around the table nonchalantly.

“Now THIS is an interesting group!” Right behind you, you hear the voice of the person who could probably turn this awful situation around, if she so wished. Sophia Johnson. She seems amused by all this. “The two superstars of the soccer team, the three most infamous girls in school, my dear teammate and of course, thou who art blessed amongst all women. How did this come to be, I wonder?” She leans on your chair, next to you and asks with an amused grin.

“You know, I could never have predicted the chain of events that led us to this, yet here we are.” You say, shrugging.

“The whole cafeteria is looking this way, though I suppose you already noticed that.” She says, going around to take the last seat, right besides Katherine and opposite to you. You find it interesting that this actually seems to calm the redhead a bit.

“And I suppose you find the whole situation rather amusing.” You play along.

“Is it that obvious? In this table are some of the main players is what’s, without a doubt, the greatest drama this academy has seen in years. Well, if we don’t count your acceptance here, David Walker.” She grins.

Everyone looks uncomfortable at her words. The three devils actually look guilty, the soccer stars don’t particularly enjoy the spotlight, ironically enough, Katherine doesn’t want people to know she’s actually one of the players, and you, well… you’re actually thankful she’s here.

“How did you get accepted here?” Jessica asks, much to your relief. At this point, any conversation is good conversation, so you answer.

“My father. It seems he knows the headmistress and pushed for my acceptance here because he thought it’d be the best for me.” You admit to everyone. Not like it’s a secret.

“I heard from Ms. Miller that some of the teacher also supported the idea. They want the school to eventually become co-ed, or something.” Emily adds, waving her hand dismissingly. You shoot her an appreciative look, thankful that she’s trying to add to the conversation.

“Co-ed? Are you serious? There’s no way the headmistress will allow that.” Lilian says. “It’s tradition for Hayes to be all-girls.”

“Well, that tradition has already been broken by our friend here.” Sophia says, resting her elbow on the table and her hand on her chin.

“And Mrs. Hayes sure wasn’t happy about that.” Jessica adds.

“What do you mean?” Megan, who has been silent the whole time, perks up when she hears that.

Lilian, Jessica and Olivia share a glance between them, then look at everyone else at the table. Olivia’s eyes linger on you, before she bites her lip and speaks.

“Alright, but what I’m about to say doesn’t leave this fucking table, you hear?” She eyes Sophia and Katherine specially, the former of whom looks confused, but nods seriously, while the latter flinches in fear.

After sighing once, Olivia reveals the truth. “You’re free to believe it or not, but it was the headmistress who told us to… you know… mess with you.” She tells you. “That’s why we were able to get away with so many things here. Since we were recorded, she said she wouldn’t cover for us anymore.”

“Are you fucking serious!?” Emily shouts, standing up and slamming her hands against the table.

“Nice way to keep quiet, soccer head.” Olivia says, eyeing Emily. The blonde girl growls and narrows her eyes, but calms down and sits down again.

“Is this true? Then the headmistress actually has something against David?” Sophia half-asks Olivia, half to herself.

“It seems so.” Lilian adds. “She said that if we could get him to break some school rule, like punching someone or something, she’d give us even more leeway.”

“Huh… So she’s really trying to get rid of me…” You mutter. You lean back on your chair and look to the ceiling. “A while ago I wouldn’t have cared. But now…”

“It’s a good thing there are no rules about dating or you would’ve been expelled already.” Sophia states casually.

Your head snaps back in place and you look at her, eyes wide and your heart racing. “What do you mean?” Shit. You wanted to sound calm but you obviously sound panicked.

“That you’re dating Emily and Megan here. Wait, you’re not?” She asks with honest curiosity.

“How did you know!?” Megan asks with panicked eyes before quickly shutting her mouth with her hands, accompanied by the loud sound of Emily slapping her forehead.

“We could’ve saved it, Meg.” Emily tells her friend.

“W-Wait! Y-You’re dating?” Katherine asks, speaking her first words since her three long-time bullies sat down.

Everyone at the table is now completely focused on the three of you. Megan looks like she’s about to cry while Emily bites her thumb and frowns.